Basics:

Uber Eats enlists drivers to deliver food for a delivery fee, plus tip

Expected pay: $2 – $10 per delivery

Husl$core: $$

Commissions & fees: NA

Where: Nationwide

Requirements: Vary based on whether you deliver by car, bike or scooter. If car or scooter, you’ll need a driver’s license, registration and insurance. Age 18 -19 +

Uber Eats Review:

Uber Eats is every bit as opaque about how it pays its drivers as its parent company, Uber. Drivers say the company’s pay formula varies from city-to-city. However, pay is made up of three components: A pick-up fee; a mileage payment; and a drop-off fee. Drivers also get 100% of customer tips, if the customer chooses to tip.

The guaranteed fees usually amount to $1-$2 each. So any given delivery could pay as little as $3. However, because Uber is among the market leaders for both driving and delivery services, you’re likely to get back-to-back jobs when you work during rush hours.

Tips are everything

This can make Uber Eats among the better paying delivery applications, according to Gridwise, a smart-phone tool that helps you manage your driving and delivery side hustle.

However the thing we don’t like about this platform, besides the lack of pay transparency, is that Uber Eats emphasizes that tips are optional. In reality, tips are a big part of driver pay in food delivery.

Other apps encourage customers to tip like they would tip a server at a restaurant. And given that these “servers” are driving your meal several miles to your door, that seems reasonable. Uber Eats, meanwhile, suggests tip amounts ranging from $1 – $3.

Recommendations:

The best way to make a good living with driving and delivery apps is to use several apps in concert and drive primarily at times of peak demand — i.e. lunch and dinner hours.

If you drive with Uber Eats, we’d recommend that you also sign up with DoorDash, and GrubHub, too. You may also want to check out Amazon Flex, which guarantees $15 to $19 per hour for package delivery.

What their users say (from Indeed):

The base pay is low so you have to rely on tips to make any money. The quests and challenges are really rare so it’s very hard unless you’re in a populated city that isn’t too spread out.

I’ve been working with Uber eats for about a year now and I also work for several other companies. Notably, I make more money with Uber Eats because of my customer tips. When the restaurants make mistakes and give the food to the wrong drivers, it can take a lot of time to work that problem out. Whenever I have to call customer service the very polite and kind however, you can tell they are a cog in the machine just like myself. It would be nice to get paid more or receive fuel and maintenance bonuses.

Pay is ok and tips can be great. There’s a lot of wear on the car though and some days were not worth the gas

Pay per delivery

Don’t get paid hourly — only like $2-3 a delivery. I think Uber partner can do a lot better than $2-3 a delivery. DoorDash pays a little bit better.

You are your own boss, so you get to drive whenever you want, although there are peak times of the day when you can make a little more. The only downfall of the job is the amount of driving you do weekly.

The pay was usually pretty good if I drove in the evening. Would definitely recommend if you find yourself out of a job and need money.

From Glassdoor

I work for Uber Eats doing food delivery. The base pay keeps getting lower. I’m talking as low as $4 to drive over 10 miles. Therefore you are dependent on tips from the customers to make decent money. However, customers tip very low because of all the fees, which don’t go to the driver at all. If you frequently decline low paying deliveries, the app would log you out. So, that independent contractor role they brag about is not true as I am penalized for not taking low paying orders not even worth my gas mileage.

Earnings are almost entirely dependent on how many restaurants are in your immediate and surrounding area. The best earning times are 4 pm to 9 pm, so that can be inonvineint for some people. Sometimes, if it’s not busy, you can have too much downtime without earning anything. App can be very glitchy and sometimes an order you were supposed to pick up, gets picked up by someone else which can be a huge waste of time and gas. (Uber Support typically compensates you a little something for your effort though. Just be sure to report the issue to them.)

GrubHub pays more

You get a decent amount of orders. There are some promotions that help incentivize workers. And customer/employee service is phenomenal! They are always fast and efficient and they also reimburse you for any time you spent on an order that didn’t work out. But payment per order per mile you drive is a lot less than you would expect (Grubhub offers better payment per order than Uber Eats and Doordash)  And the in-App map is faulty. Can be difficult to locate specified houses, apartments, etc. using the maps.

2/24/2023

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